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July 20, 2008 |
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Jeff Loomis
August 26, 2005
By Tony Antunovich
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Few bands have reached the status that NEVERMORE have. Look no further than the band's new release, "This Godless Endeavor" - a monumental champion of virtue and unmatched perseverance. In a world where heavy music is in dire need of more originality, NEVERMORE stand untouched and are far ahead of the game than the majority of their counterparts. In this exclusive interview with METALEATER, guitarist Jeff Loomis sheds some light on the band's musical evolution, their upcoming tour plans for next month, and other evidence that proves just why NEVERMORE are still around today - stronger than ever.
Congratulations on the new album - it's phenomenal!
Thank you so much. We definitely appreciate hearing that seeing as we worked so hard on it and we got a chance to work with Andy Sneap again, so - brilliant man, brilliant production, and I think the fans are going to appreciate this album. I really do.
How does it feel to have been given the opportunity to work with Andy Sneap again?
Pretty phenomenal! I mean, we worked with him back in 200 for the "Dead Heart In A Dead World" album, and unfortunately for "Enemies Of Reality", we didn't have enough in our budget due to it being the last record for Century Media, and they didn't give us much money for the budget because they didn't know if we were going to re-sign with them or not. So, we had to find a producer in the Seattle area, Kelly Gray - who did "Enemies Of Reality" - and he just didn't do a very good job on it. But getting back to Andy, you know - I call him the sixth member of NEVERMORE. He's one of the most sought-after metal producers that's out there right now, and one of the most talented. So I hope that we can work with him again in the future.
The result of your collective efforts with him is just amazing. I just think that this album solidifies where you guys are heading in the future. I think it brings together all of the best elements from your previous releases into the new one and in my opinion, you have gone far beyond your own capabilities.
Well, I think a lot of it has to do with that we went back to the old school way of kind of doing the writing, where normally, in the past, I would do most of the music writing and Warrel would do all the lyrics - which he still does - but this time I think it's more a diverse-sounding record simply due to the fact that everybody had a contributing factor in the songwriting process. I wrote six songs for the record, Steve (Smyth), our other guitar player, wrote three songs and Jim (Sheppard), our bass player, actually wrote one. So it really gives you the whole "sonic effect" of different things going on throughout the entire record. I mean, of course, there's the trademark NEVERMORE ballad song going on a couple of times on the record, but all in all it's an extremely diverse record and it's one of the best ones we've done yet.
As you get older and you mature as a person, you get better with songwriting as well, and that's what we really focused on - just writing good solid songs for this record.
It is indeed an extremely diverse record.
Speed metal, thrash metal - it has everything. Why limit yourself, you know what I mean? Why sound the same all the time, you know? You should always have different things musically going on. I try not to limit myself to what I listen to as an artist. I grew up with my father who had a lot of '70s records. I get inspiration from so many different things that it's not even funny. I think that rubs off a lot in our music sometimes.
NEVERMORE is a very original band. As you know, there are thousands of metal bands out there now, and a lot of them are mass-produced such as a lot of the power metal bands. There are a lot of manufactured bands out there that just sort of go for the same sound. But to my knowledge, there is not one band in metal that has the same sound that you guys have.
Definitely. What I tell a lot of people in interviews that I do is that it's very funny because if you go back to say like the mid to late '80s and you put ten bands on a tape, you could identify every single one of those bands, you know what I'm saying? And if you do that same thing today man, it's like "Who the hell is this? Who's that?" Everybody is blatantly ripping each other off. We need more identity and more originality in the music that's going on this day and age. Music is freedom, dude. You have the opportunity to do something that nobody else has ever done, and that's what we try to do. We all go in with clear heads; we come up with one riff; we build off that like a painter would paint a painting. We go at it very carefully. It's just one of those things where we're very.... I guess you could say unpredictable.
We don't know what we're going to do next, and I think that's why we have such a solid fan-base. It's because people can usually read through bullshit, you know what I'm saying? And they know that we've been honest and we've survived the "grunge" area through the early '90s to 2000. We've never changed. We've always done what we've believed in, and that's NEVERMORE dude! That's the essence of that, you know.
That's to be respected. As you know, we're living in an age where unfortunately metal is not the musical choice of most people in the world. But I think it's starting to go higher and higher and I think you guys are going to make a lot of ground with this record.
I truly think so.
What exactly inspired you to write this album?
That's a hard question to answer because, number one, if you go in with the thought of saying to yourself, "This is what I'm going to do on this." or if you have a pre-planned notion about what you're going to do, the record's not going to sound right. It's going to sound too structured and worked-out. So, if you want to know an honest answer to that, actually, the other members of the band inspire me - because I'll come up with a riff or whatever and Warrel (Dane) will come up with this thing that I wouldn't even imagine that he would come up with. I sometimes try to sing myself to some of the things I do, but it sounds stupid. But he's way out there as a vocalist and that inspires me to work even harder on other things. So honestly, I really go in with a clear head and go into my recording studio and just do my thing, man. And if I listen to other things, I don't really want to do that because it's like that's getting in the way of what I'm doing, you know what I'm saying?
I want to go in with a completely clear head, and that NEVERMORE formula has always worked. It always has. Don't break something that works, you know what I mean? Just keep flowing with it, and that's what we do.
In terms of the album title, I think a lot of people can interpret its meaning in different ways, but in the eyes of NEVERMORE, what does "This Godless Endeavor" mean?
Well, the question has been asked "Is this a concept album again", but it's really not. I mean, we've already done that in the past with "Dreaming Neon Black". Basically this is more of a record that's based on topic upon topic, you know what I mean? Warrel's writing about the meaning of life. He's writing about the system that we live in and things like that. But basically, "This Godless Endeavor" is about different religions in the world and how sometimes religion can group categories of people together and cause good things, but sometimes it can cause bad things, and sometimes religion can even cause wars - holy wars or whatever. So he kind of wanted to get his point across with that really. But it's not a negative thing at all. It's just something that he's thinking in his mind that he wants to get across, and he really wants the listener or the reader to intertwine with his head as far as the craziness that he comes up with goes.
It's very difficult for me to describe some of his lyrics because sometimes I don't see him until the very end (laughs). But he's a brilliant poet man, and if you read into what he's saying, it's quite incredible.
The lyrics are very intricate....
Yeah, they are.
....as is the music. I think you guys have improved on every single album. James Murphy performed a solo on "The Holocaust Of Thought". How did that come about?
Well, basically, James was already in Andy's studio - in studio B working with another band - and basically Jim (bass player) had this interlude thing between two songs and it sounded kind of "alone" without guitar in it. So we asked James if he'd be a guest musician on it and he was more than willing to do it. He spent about 24 hours in the studio coming up with the solo and stuff. We're very, very happy to say that he's the really killer guest musician on this record, and a great friend of ours as well.
The addition of Steve in the band is a perfect fit.
Steve's writing is very much like NEVERMORE's songwriting, where he fits in perfectly with the style of music that we're doing. We inspire one another to play better.
He played with you in Vancouver on the DIMMU BORGIR tour in December 2003.
Yeah. What happened was basically we didn't have a final guitar player. As many of our fans know, we've gone through many guitar players, but it just took a while to find the right dude, you know. I was kind of friends with Steve before the whole NEVERMORE thing even happened because he came from TESTAMENT of course, and he wasn't having a very good time in that band. I asked him simply "Dude, would you be interested in joining?" - and he's the perfect dude for the part.
I think so too. Warrel's voice has totally transformed. He has such a great range as it is, but he displays such an incredible diversity on this album that I've personally never heard before. I even think he sounds a little bit like Geoff Tate in one song.
I don't even want to call Geoff Tate one of his inspirations because I don't think he is really, to tell you the truth, but Warrel is one of those kind of guys where I think that he's found his head voice more. You know like remember on the SANCTUARY albums back in the '80s where he's singing extremely high? But he's kind of found his head voice where he's got that medium thing going on. And it's funny because we were just playing some older stuff today of the cover they did of "White Rabbit", and he can still pull that shit off man. He can still sing the high stuff. I think it has a lot to do as well with his current health status. He's in excellent shape; he's lost a lot of weight, you know; he's very fit; he's given up drinking. It's pretty fucken awesome. I'm so proud of him, because it's very difficult sometimes for people to give up addictions and things like that. He's an awesome person that needs to be around for awhile longer. He did something about it, you know what I mean?
Lots of people don't do something about it and they either end up dead or they end up just losing in life, you know. He's one of my best friends, dude.
I think that one of the big misconceptions to the outside world is that everyone thinks that people who play or listen to heavy metal are aggressive, angry people, but I don't think that's so.
Like I said before, metal is total freedom, you know what I'm saying? It doesn't matter how you look or anything - it's just a part of what's important in life, you know. Metal is totally killer.
I believe the release of this album is going to open you up to a different market too. Not that it's not heavy - it is - but there are a lot of different melodies in there too that I don't think people have heard before and I think they're going to be really attracted to that.
I think so, and plus the heaviness of the guitars. We're also trying to bring the guitar solo back, you know what I'm saying? A lot of bands out there say "Oh, those fuckers that play leads - it's so widdly widdly." But half of those guys saying that are people that can't do it in the first place, you know. So we're really trying to bring that back and I think people are going to enjoy that visual of just intricate fast guitar playing. We're just really excited, you know. We want to get the hell out and get on tour - get on that bus and get things rolling. We're very, very stoked.
And you're heading off to Europe next month for some headlining dates.
Yeah. We'll be gone for that for about a month and a half and then we're going to come back to the States again and then we're going to support a national act, whom I don't know yet who it is. So we're going to be pretty busy right up until the new year, and then they're going to put us out again. We're going to do a U.S. headliner - just keep rolling with it man - just keep busy.
So are you guys now able to put the day jobs on the back burner for now and focus on the music?
We have to. There's just no way. I mean, if I had a day job dude, it would not work out for me (laughs). There's just too much stuff that I'm doing. It's really been overwhelming with this new record. I've never done this many interviews, so obviously there's a buzz about it and we're very, very happy with this. You know, it's simply our best work yet and I think people will see that, and we're excited dude!
I agree with you. Do you have anything you’d like to say to our readers?
METALEATER readers - thank you very much for reading what I have to say about NEVERMORE. We love you, our fans out there, very much and we're just looking forward to seeing all of our fans out on tour and we hope that you enjoy our new album, "This Godless Endeavor". [FIN]
» Official NEVERMORE Website
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